


Happy endings are grand, but I'd rather be realistic

by TheKidsFromYesterday



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hopeful Ending, Minor Hermione Granger/Viktor Krum
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-15 07:40:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28559940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheKidsFromYesterday/pseuds/TheKidsFromYesterday
Summary: They won the war, but at a great cost. Now these children who grew up too fast will embark upon the next great adventure: Adulthood.Happily ever afters? They might get there in time, but the trauma they went through is nothing a handful of years will fix.





	1. She Brushed Her Sleeve Against the Bark of the Oak Tree

**Author's Note:**

> The epilogue was bullshit. I hated it the first time I read The Deathly Hallows and skipped it every time since. I don't know how many chapters I'll do. Maybe five or six? I might do a looping story and come back to each character after everyone else has had their turn. We'll see. I will update the tags as the story progresses.

Hermione is the one that realises it first. She's sitting in the kitchen at the Burrow with a teetering mountain of wedding invitations beside her when Molly brings it up.

"So, dear, have you given any thought into how long you'll have your job?" 

"My-what?" Hermione splutters, certain that she must have misheard the Weasley matriarch. 

"Your job, dear. It's not right for children to be shunted off to their grandparents house every day, though Arthur and I will love having them here as often you and Ron need. But eventually you will have to give it up." 

"Molly, Ron is barely halfway through his Auror training, and I'm going back to Hogwarts as soon as it's rebuilt. There's a time and a place for talking about careers and children, and it certainly isn't now." 

"You have to plan ahead for the future." Molly says kindly. 

Then Ginny walks in chattering happily about some restaurant that Harry took her to and Molly's attention is turned to her youngest child. 

_'Plan ahead for the future?'_

Hermione goes back to Hogwarts and tries not to get too choked up when she thinks about all the faces she will never see again. Or how much blood was spilled on the very stones she walks on with a near silent tread, a hold-over from their year in hiding. 

_'What would my future hold? If I could gaze into the Mirror of Erised, what would I see?'_

She may never know the answer to that question, but she knows what she would _not_ see. Hermione would not see herself struggling to keep a Qudditch team's worth of children fed while Ron was the only one bringing Galleons home. Mrs. Weasley may have been able to raise seven children with a single income, but Hermione has no desire to live hand-to-mouth just to please Molly. 

Hermione isn't even in love with Ron. She agreed to marry him because she thought she should, since Ginny and Harry were well on their way to marriage, to hear Ginny tell it at least, so, if she and Ron were joined in marriage, then the Golden Trio of Gryffindor would truly be family. 

By all the gods, she said yes because she was afraid. Afraid of their friendship falling apart now that they don't need her anymore. Not for essays, or scouring the school's library for some obscure bit of information that will help them with that month's mystery, or Horcrux hunting. 

Hermione wonders what her mother would say if she were here. Probably that she should marry for love and that if Harry and Ron only kept her around because she was useful to them, then she could tell them both to sod off. 

She is Hermione Jean Granger, proud muggleborn and one of the many people who had kept Harry alive until the day came for him to vanquish Tom Riddle, what little had been left of him, anyway. 

Mind made up, she continues on her way to Charms class, mentally composing a letter to Ron and another to Mrs. Weasley, explaining why she can't marry Ron. At least, not yet. 

Ron had only started paying attention to her after other boys, particularly Viktor Krum, showed interest. Perhaps it would do them both a great deal of good to date other people, and someday, if the Fates allowed it, they would end up together. If not, then Hermione wished him all the best with a witch who better suited him than she. 

Maybe she would write a letter to Viktor while she was at it. What was one more sheet of parchment? He could have found a nice witch of his own since they last spoke, but she valued his friendship more than a fleeting summer romance. And if he was single and willing, perhaps that summer fling could become something more. 

_'Whatever the future holds, I'll meet it head-on.'_


	2. And Frowned as She Felt the Fabric Catch

It was dark and the rain coming down made the trip take twice as long as Chang Cho tried to keep from slipping on the muddy ground, but she needed to do this in absolute privacy. She would be leaving Hogwarts tomorrow, so this would be her last chance to grieve. Staring down at roughly where Harry had come back with Cedric's corpse, she fought back a wave of nausea as she remembered that dreadful day.

_{Lifeless eyes staring up at the sky, never to see another sunset, another sunrise, another anything}_

Cho sank to her knees and removed a few items from her pockets. Arranging the fruit she had swiped during breakfast into a pyramid, she placed the incense sticks into the ground and lit them with a flick of her wand after casting a spell to prevent the rain from landing on them. 

"Hello, Cedric." she began, coughing to clear her suddenly tight throat. "It's-it's been a while." 

Cho let out a sigh as she continued. "I'm leaving Hogwarts tomorrow. Everyone was offered the chance to repeat the year, since last year was-" she closed her eyes tightly as memories of screams and blood and the smell of burning flesh assaulted her. "Was less than ideal." 

Clutching her knees, she wondered what kind of man Cedric would have become if he had lived. If he had had the chance to be more than one of the first casualties of the Second War. 

"I think I'll return home for a while. Britain has too many bad memories." 

The incense was burning low now, so she hurried on. 

"You would be proud of Harry, I think. He's making sure that all of the fallen are remembered, especially you." 

Cho couldn't quite recall what colour Cedric's eyes had been. Green? Brown? Hazel? Every little thing about him, from the way he spoke to the way he flew had slowly faded as the years passed. 

"Do you think you could forgive me? For trying to replace you?" 

And hadn't that been disastrous. She had known that Harry had had a crush on her for a while, and what had she done? She had used him, the same way the youngest Weasley's had used others to make their crushes jealous. Cho had tried to move on from Cedric, all the while feeling as if she was betraying him. She was so relieved when she and Harry ended things, as the combined guilt of taking advantage of him and constantly comparing him to Cedric was too much to bear. 

"Maybe one day I'll meet someone and fall hopelessly in love with them." she whispered as the last tendrils of smoke drifted up into the air. "But they won't be you. Your first love is always special." 

Gathering up her things, she made her way back to the castle, hoping she could sneak into bed without waking anyone.


End file.
